In September of 1965, Ford Motor Company, Shelby American, and Hertz Rent-A-Car teamed up on what is arguably one of the most successful car marketing campaigns of all time. Together, Shelby, Ford, and Hertz launched a unique line of Shelby GT350 Mustangs that the average guy could rent at the low, low price of just $17 a day, and 17-cents a mile. These weekend warriors became legendary, and today a genuine Shelby GT350H can bring top dollar at auction.
While a vast majority of these Hertz-Shelby specials wound up wearing the iconic Raven Black with gold racing stripes, a handful of special models were painted in different hues. This includes today’s eBay Find, a Sapphire Blue Shelby GT350H, one of just 50 ever produced.
The Shelby GT350H is a rare car in and of itself, as Shelby built around 1,000 of these rental Mustangs to ship to Hertz shops all over America. An overwhelming number of these cars came painted in Raven Black with gold stripes, but there were also a handful of models painted the classic Wimbledon White with Guardsman Blue stripes.
There were also 50 Candy Apple Red, Ivy Green, and Sapphire Blue Shelby GT350H Mustangs built and sold by Shelby, and we don’t have to tell you that most of these cars ended up scrapped, parted out, or largely forgotten for the past 40 years. Only recently has interested in these old rental Shelbys peaked, and now these cars fetch top dollar at auction.
This particular Sapphire Blue example has few details, save that it was a California car (with the original California plate) and the pictures seem to indicate a well-restored vehicle. But with bidding over $90,000, we’ll have to file this particular eBay car into our dream garage. For now…